How Beauty Performed During the First Half of 2026

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How Beauty Performed During the First Half of 2026

Circana data shows that online overtook brick-and-mortar as the top channel for prestige skin care, while shifts are afoot in mass makeup.

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Both mass and prestige beauty saw continued U.S. sales gains during the first half of the year, according to Circana, but drivers of that growth shifted.

In prestige, hair care was the fastest-growing category, up 11 percent versus the year prior. Skin care grew 9 percent — versus a 1 percent decline a year ago — while fragrance grew 6 percent and makeup rose 3 percent.

“Prestige skin care is accelerating in 2026 after a somewhat softer year last year,” said Larissa Jensen, global beauty industry adviser at Circana, adding that natural skin care brands, which saw a post-pandemic dip as the clinical skin care boom took hold, returned to both dollar and unit sales growth in prestige for the first time in years.

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Also for the first time, e-commerce represented the largest channel for prestige skin care.

“We’ve been seeing the online channel grow faster than the brick-and-mortar channel in skin care for some time now. It’s a category that lends itself to online because of its complexity — similar to [prestige] hair, which has had a greater share of its business coming from online for years now,” Jensen said.

The other big shift? Mass makeup , which was down one point this time last year, is now accelerating, increasing 5 percent in dollar sales though units remain slightly soft.

“I connect that to the broader story of value,” said Jensen, adding that in both mass and prestige makeup, the biggest growth driver is the same: lip liner .

Lip liner sales grew 36 percent in the mass market and 34 percent in prestige, effectively playing the role today that lip treatments played from 2022 to 2024 when those skyrocketed in popularity post-Rhode.

Elsewhere in mass, fragrance rose 15 percent — consistent with its 2025 growth rate — skin care grew 8 percent and hair rose 7 percent.

Not only did mass fragrance outpace prestige in growth, but within prestige, women’s fragrance sales were flat for the first time since the fragrance boom began in 2021. The category’s growth was instead driven by luxury fragrance, which comprises about 15 percent of total prestige fragrance and includes artisanal and ultra high-end brands, as well as men’s fragrance , which continued to rise.

“Demand may be somewhat flat in prestige, but it’s still strong in luxury, which is growing in units,” Jensen said.

Other highlights of the first half: Prestige skin care growth leaned more on body and sun care in the second quarter, with those subcategories rising 16 and 19 percent during the first half, whereas facial skin care led growth in the first quarter.

In prestige hair, treatments were the biggest growth driver, and in makeup, blush, bronzer and hybrid products followed lip liners in momentum.

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